September 18, 2009
Mysterious Baroque palace flying a Templar flag?
Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol begins with a site we cover in our soon-to-be-released book: Washington DC’s “House of the Temple of the Thirty-Third and Last Degree”. Given its architect (John Russell Pope, designer of the Jefferson Memorial) and burial crypt (Albert Pike), we had naturally included it in our world tour, so to speak.
However, in the same chapter, we cover in even greater detail a site we consider more interesting, and more publicity-shy. It’s certainly more obscure. Does anyone out there recognize this Baroque palace flying a Templar flag?
Baatska Palace Stockholm of course.
Baatska Palace in Stockholm Sweden. Designed by Nicodemus Tessin the Elder. Belongs to the Grand Lodge of Sweden.
Some quick research find it listed as Sweden’s Masonic Temple on the website of the Swedish Order of Freemasons, under Addressed and Telephone numbers:
http://www.frimurarorden.se/eng/index.html
¿is there a secret Order of Templars still in existance?
One hears rumours … from time to time, … but what is the reality of the secret survival of the Order of Templars:
¿Does anybody know?
There are a good number of organizations- many Masonic and quasi-Masonic- which call themselves Templars, or try to draw on the legacy of the Templars in various ways. Some of these claim to be the actual mediaeval chivalric order, others are admittedly modern creations.
The truth of matter is that the Order of the Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon no longer exists. The Templars were a Catholic military-religious order established by Papal authority in 1129 and suppressed by Papal authority in 1312. Many were absorbed into the Knights Hospitaller (which still exists), or organized themselves into new orders, but the Templars were no more. When the Church ceased to sanction them, the order ceased to exist.